Richard Dawkins vs. Issac Newton

[Cypress]

Agreed. It's arbitrary and situationally changeable which is why societies create laws to nail down the rules.

Consider lifeboat ethics; all the options are valid choices, none are correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeboat_ethics#Lifeboat_articles

My two cents: you put the children on the life boat and let everyone else take a swim.

A lot of people thought Plato was wrong, but he thought there was an ideal form of justice and virtue which few people would ever perceive because we live in a world of opinion and illusion.

 

[Cypress]

More along the lines of Deism

Newton was a weird guy, and his views of Christianity were pretty unorthodox, which would have gotten him labeled as a heretic if they were more widely known.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Newton was a weird guy, and his views of Christianity were pretty unorthodox, which would have gotten him labeled as a heretic if they were more widely known.

Same for Jefferson and Franklin, both Deists.

http://eskify.com/5-amazing-facts-deism/
There are many famous Deists including six of America’s founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, John Adams, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. There are still many other famous deists like, Abraham Lincoln, Neil Armstrong, Voltaire, Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

My two cents: you put the children on the life boat and let everyone else take a swim.

A lot of people thought Plato was wrong, but he thought there was an ideal form of justice and virtue which few people would ever perceive because we live in a world of opinion and illusion.

While there could be 50+ children** the scenario seems to address an adult population forcing a decision of who lives and who dies.


**depending on their age/size, it's possible to fill the boat with a 100+ children despite the load capacity of 60 adults. Helicopters evacuating Saigon in 1975 carried a lot more people than seats because many of the Vietnamese being evacuated were smaller than Americans in addition to being women and children.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/09/05/arts/05LASTDAYS/05LASTDAYS-master1050.jpg

 

[Cypress]

Same for Jefferson and Franklin, both Deists.

http://eskify.com/5-amazing-facts-deism/
There are many famous Deists including six of America’s founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, John Adams, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. There are still many other famous deists like, Abraham Lincoln, Neil Armstrong, Voltaire, Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte.

I think Jefferson was clearly a deist. Washington and Franklin I am not convinced, because their religious views were not as well documented as Jefferson's. It's possible they were deist,but the historical record is ambiguous

Then we have America's first atheist president, Donald Trumpf.

 

[Melchizedek = Michael]

I think Jefferson was clearly a deist. Washington and Franklin I am not convinced, because their religious views were not as well documented as Jefferson's. It's possible they were deist,but the historical record is ambiguous

Then we have America's first atheist president, Donald Trumpf.

Trump wasn't an atheist! He had a God and a Messiah!
Both were named Donald Trump!

 

[American Man]

Michelangelo's Pieta gives me a knowledge of beauty and truth without the aid of analytical reason or scientific experimentation.

No.

 

[American Man]

I think Jefferson was clearly a deist. Washington and Franklin I am not convinced, because their religious views were not as well documented as Jefferson's. It's possible they were deist,but the historical record is ambiguous

Then we have America's first atheist president, Donald Trumpf.

Most POTUSes were atheists. Did you know that not one founding father requested a clergyman at his deathbed?

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Most POTUSes were atheists. Did you know that not one founding father requested a clergyman at his deathbed?

Isn't having a clergyman at your deathbed a Limey or Catholic thing? Protestants don't need middle men.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

No.

Idiot.

 

[Cypress]

No.

Tell me what scientific experiments and analytical tools you use to measure and acquire knowledge of moral truths, artistic beauty and artistic integrity, aesthetic sensibilities.

 

[Cypress]

Tolstoy has an interesting take on Christianity

For Tolstoy, official Christianity was deeply flawed.

1. It masked, crushed, and perverted the real meanings of life.
2. In his view, the universal truths that were at the heart of Christianity were hidden behind ritual and mysticism.

Tolstoy argued that the real greatness of Jesus Christ was that he could see through the falsehoods of civilization.

The whole of true Christianity, for Tolstoy, was expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, which instructs people to refrain from actions that their nature tells them are wrong.

Inspired by this ethical reading of Christianity, Tolstoy rejected much that the established Orthodox Church held sacred:

1. He rejected most of the theology of the church.
2. He rejected the need for priests, sacraments, and liturgy.
3. He even began rewriting the Gospels to remove everything that was mystical and supernatural.



Source credit: Mark Steinberg, professor of history, University of Illinois